Bryant Park

Bryant Park is a 9-acre public park in Midtown, Manhattan, New York City, located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets. The park is located next to the main branch of the New York Public Library, and it was opened in 1847 at Reservoir Square before being renamed after the New York Evening Post editor William Cullen Bryant in 1884. During the 1960s, the park was home to anti-Vietnam War protests, and it was taken over by drug dealers, prostitutes, and homeless people during the 1970s, becoming a no-go area. During the 1980s, the Rockefellers and other notable families initiated efforts to restore the park, and it reopened in 1992 (after a four-year closure) to popular acclaim. Bryant Park's transformation was the result of successful private-public partnerships, and it came to cater to white-collar people with its food and drink kiosks.